Medication orlistat appears helpful in improving weight management for obese adolescents
...nited States, the proportion of adolescents with a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 95th percentile for age, a widely accepted definition of obesity in adolescents, has increased 15.5 percent to 23.4 percent in certain ethnic minorities. Overweight children are at a 15-fold greater risk of becoming o...Good friends, rather than close family ties, help you live longer in older age
... conferring a positive physiological effect on the body in the same way that stress confers a negative effect....A vaccine approach to treating Parkinson's disease
...n a spectrum of neurological disorders called Lewy body disease, which include Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. These disorders are marked by the presence of Lewy bodies -- abnormal clumps of alpha-synuclein -- in the brain. Normally, alpha-synuclein proteins support communications between brain cells, or ne...Female volunteers prepare for a second 'bedrest'
... their heads, to induce the same conditions in the body as those experienced during long periods of weightlessness. The volunteers were divided into three groups of four in order to study the effects of special measures designed to counter the loss of muscle, fluid and bone mass and the reduction of certa...Oral liquid hydroxyurea promising for long-term use in babies with sickle cell anemia
...ction. Patients received 20 milligrams/kilgrams of body weight/day (mg/kg/day) of hydroxyurea. All 21 patients who completed the initial study were enrolled by their parents into the HUSOFT Extension study. In that study, the dose of hydroxyurea was elevated from 20 to 30 mg/kg/day for an average of 4.0 y...Tight glucose control lowers CVD by about 50 percent in diabetes
...h type 2 diabetes? "There is a strong and growing body of evidence that everyone with diabetes gains from strict blood glucose control," said Catherine Cowie, PhD, who oversees EDIC for the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). DCCT and EDIC were funded by the NIDDK ...FDA approves first blood test to predict risk for stroke
...tolic blood pressure, smoking status and diabetes, body mass index, as well as levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a risk factor for systemic inflammation. While elevated cholesterol levels are a good predictor for heart disease, no such relationship has been established for stroke, even though both are r...Study sheds light on why diabetes drug causes edema
...ng PPAR-gamma, a receptor that helps sensitize the body to insulin. PPAR is found in muscle, fat, kidney, ...amma showed about a 10 percent average increase in body weight because of fluid retention. The blood plasma volume of these mice increased by one-third, Yan...Only transplant center that developed comprehensive protocol for liver transplants in kids with MSUD
...D become sick with even a minor viral illness, the body will break down protein stored in muscle for energy. The amino acids released from the child's protein stores can be as deadly as those from the diet. A multi-disciplinary approach to treatment and surgery was utilized to plan for every conceivable s...Radiofrequency ablation is effective long-term treatment for kidney tumors
...generated by electrical energy to sites within the body through a thin needle, similar to probes used in biopsy procedures. Placement of the probe is guided by CT scan, ultrasound or other imaging techniques. Widely used to treat cardiac arrhythmias, RFA is also being investigated for destruction of small...A virus-like hitchhiker may trigger bacterial meningitis
...utbreaks of life-threatening meningitis. The human body harbors many harmless bacterial residents, known as commensals. One such bacterium, called Neisseria meningitidis, makes its home in the upper respiratory tract, usually without consequence. But certain strains of N. meningitidis -- known as 'hyper...Cancer researcher Susan Horwitz wins Alpert prize for Taxol work
...e are many different types of tubulin in the human body that are expressed in tissue-specific patterns. Today, Dr. Horwitz, who is a past-President of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (2002-2003), continues her work with Taxol, investigating whether the presence of different forms of tu...Researchers shed new light on cause of bedsores and other chronic wounds
... together in order to create a barrier between the body and the outside world, keeping water in and infections out. But when a wound occurs, skin cells from lower layers loosen from their neighbors and start migrating to the wound site and dividing rapidly. Dr. Tomic-Canic and her colleagues found that in...Study sheds light on the developmental origins of polycystic ovarian syndrome
...y common. One in five women had more facial and/or body hair than normal, and one in four reported menstrual irregularity of greater than four days. Five per cent of women reported that they had an existing diagnosis of PCOS. "We examined maternal weight in late pregnancy, birth weight and placental weigh...Vaginal cancer detected more often with PET than CT scans
...ading to lymph nodes increasingly higher up in the body as the disease progresses. Doctors use information...cans. CT scans obtain cross-sectional views of the body by detecting the amount of X-rays that pass through the body's tissues. Small tumors can easily esca...Johns Hopkins scientists use gene therapy to prevent heart arrhythmias from stem cell transplants
... not known, adult stem cells are a special type of body cell found in skeletal muscle, heart, bone marrow and other tissues that gives rise to other types of specialized cells, including bone, cartilage, fat, and muscle, such as the heart. Because they can be extracted and reinjected into the same person...New report calls for recovery units to boost surgery survival rates
..., for example, that instead of running complicated body scans, doctors can use much simpler, more reliable fitness tests at no extra cost."...Survey finds women suffer in silence with pelvic floor disorders
...ts, significant risks for PFD were older age, high body mass index, number of vaginal births, and the use of forceps. Minor incontinence and other PFDs usually begin after a woman gives birth. Then, as women age, the bladder stretches and pelvic muscles weaken, especially if they don't exercise. Uterine...Polls finds many Americans believe cancer myths
...t surgical treatment actually spread cancer in the body and 13 percent said they were unsure whether this was true. Twenty-seven percent believed that there is a cure for cancer available being withheld by the healthcare industry and an additional 14 percent were uncertain. Nineteen percent believed that ...Mayo Clinic finds kidney disease associated with 'benign' prostate obstruction
...n the kidneys cannot rid metabolic wastes from the body or maintain the proper fluid and chemical balances. Eventually, the waste builds up and becomes poisonous to the body. Kidney disease can develop rapidly - in two to three months - or gradually over decades. Many risks coincide with the development ...